Mystery webbing

Sometimes deals can be found on webbing from obscure vendors, sometimes not; I ended up with 60ft of milspec this way once after ordering 60ft of Type18. Of course the vendor refunded me and told me to keep the webbing, so maybe that wasn’t such a bad deal.

Just before we left for Ghana I was on the hunt for spare webbing to make slings and such from, and on ebay I came across 100ft of really cheap one inch tubular. That was all the auction said — no specs whatsoever, and so I took a shot. When the webbing arrived it was apparent just from the feel and weave that it wasn’t milspec webbing. We went to Ghana and I figured I’d find a use for it when we got back.

It was windy and cold today, not great for the first day of spring, but still we wanted to do something slackline related … what better than to break test this spare webbing. See the video off to the side.

So what have we learned? Well, this webbing is stronger than I’d have thought. It saw peak loads of 2400lbs or so during the pulling, and 2000+lb sustained loads before it finally broke. As sketchy as this webbing looks, I’d say it’s probably safe for beginner short lines (20-30ft), since I sometimes use 9/16″ webbing (which is rated to 2200lbs). Again I find that I am overly pessimistic, which probably isn’t a bad thing when it comes to safety. Nonetheless, be wary of deals from random vendors that seem too good to be true, you may end up with shoddy webbing.

Below is a pic of the sheared piece of ‘mystery webbing’ sitting next to some REI milspec.

1 Comment

Hey, i’ve been watching your videos recently, and today i bought my first slackline. I can tension it very easily between a 20-30 foot gap, but once i get farther, my slackline bottoms out. I bought the 1 inch climb-spec at REI, and i was wondering if you had any suggestions for longer distances? Would your pulley system be about the only way to tension it more?

EDIT: Get some friends to help you pull (or ask random strangers in the park … I’ve never had anyone say no!). It will take 3-4 people to pull a 50-80ft line suitably tight. Or move the line upward at the ends (to allow for extra sag). Or checkout the “strength of three men for $20″ article to see how to do this alone for cheap. Beyond 100ft will require proper pulleys.